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If It's Thursday... We Have Revised Jobless Numbers

RUSH: We've got new unemployment news, by the way. It's Thursday, and what does that mean? It means that we have a revised figure from last week. "New claims for unemployment benefits rose last week for the fourth straight week, which could heighten concerns the labor market recovery is softening."

This is Reuters, and they're worried. Reuters is very concerned. This was not the "trend." Remember last week and two weeks ago, when they were telling us that the unemployment claims (the new claims for unemployment insurance) were steady? They were maybe dropping a thousand or two, and they said, "The number doesn't really matter. It's the trend. It's the direction. It is the trajectory. It's the momentum." Well, for that to mean anything, the trend, the trajectory, the momentum better continue down.

And now it hasn't.

"New claims for unemployment benefits rose last week 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 383,000. Last week's figure was revised up to 373,000 from the reported 370,000. Economists that were consulted by Reuters had forecast claims unchanged last week." So in real numbers, given that last week's figure was 3,000 higher than what was reported, the new claims number is up 13,000 from what was reported last week, not 10,000. I know numbers are hard to follow on radio, but let me try.

Last week they tell us 370,000 claims. Right?

But wait! But wait! No, no, no, because it was revised upward by 3,000. So it's 373,000. But they're reporting 383,000, which is going to be revised next week (probably to 386,000 or higher). So we've actually had an increase of 13,000, not 10,000, if we consistently report numbers. But the point is they never report the worst number because the worst number is not available until a few days later, afterwards. So they revised it up. Now, I could spend a lot of time here.

You know, my relentless quest for the truth never stops. Our relentless, daily pursuit of the truth. And I went back into our archives, and I dug out the Reuters and the AP articles about weekly jobless claims from the past three weeks. And I did this just to be able to demonstrate how the one-party media that we have here is lying to us. Now, I've been saying, pointing out for weeks now that Reuters and the AP and the rest of the news media have been hiding the increase in new jobless numbers by reporting the unrevised number.

Which they then compare to the prior week's revised number.

Which is deceptive, since the new number is always revised up.

In this case, worse than what was originally reported.

In fact, the weekly jobless claims number has now been revised up 19 weeks in a row and 64 out of the last 65 weeks. Meaning that the 383,000 job claims reported today, it's gonna be 386,000 or 387,000. Who knows? It's gonna be revised upward next Thursday. But that number will never be reported. So the number is always worse than what is reported. Now, though, what's happened is in today's story, Reuters is doing an about-face. And they're actually admitting that new jobless claims have gone up for four weeks in a row.

This is unprecedented in the modern era.

Reuters and AP have been carrying the regime's water on this unemployment news, and even today they're trying to. They report the numbers and they're right about them, but then they write "could heighten concerns the labor market recovery is softening." Reuters has not shown any recent concern about the labor market "softening." They have been trying to tell us that it's on the verge of burgeoning. They've been saying just the exact opposite.

Now, what is with this sudden admission of what we've been saying for weeks? The job recovery market doesn't exist. The unemployment number is coming down because of people leaving the workforce. It's not because new jobs are being created. Now, Reuters has done a 180. The AP has not. AP will not give up the ghost. AP's headline is: "US Filings For Unemployment Aid at a Five-Week High -- The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose last week to a five-week high, evidence the job market remains sluggish."

What happened to last week when the "trajectory" was what counted? The downward direction, the momentum! We were all headed in the right direction, finally. "The Labor Department said Thursday the weekly applications for unemployment rose 10,000 to 383,000." No! They had to rise 13,000 from what was reported last week to get to 383,000. They reported 370 last week, not 373. "The four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased for the first time in a month to 374,000.

"Applications had leveled off at about 370,000 for four weeks. That decline suggested hiring could pick up in May." Oh, no! "But when applications dropped below 375,000, it suggested that hiring is strong enough to reduce the unemployment rate." But the AP doesn't even bother to mention that new jobless claims have actually gone up four weeks in a row. And I think, with as much time as has been spent on this, the American people are now wise to the reporting of unemployment news, and they're greeting all of this with laughter.

And it's not hard.

People are living the reality of the job market.

And AP and Reuters and the rest can do everything they want to try to convince people that everybody else is doing well. There's no evidence. You don't see it. Nobody's living it. So they're now becoming jokes.